How Fitness Opened My Life: Why Building Strength Unlocks Confidence, Community, and Adventure in Spokane

Most people start working out because they want to lose weight or get healthier. I started because I was embarrassed.

My senior year of high school, I somehow ended up in a weights class I didn’t even want to take. I literally tried to get out of it. Growing up overweight, I had always been terrified of being seen in my body, especially around girls. The idea of exercising in front of people was a nightmare.

But that same year, I asked the girl I had the biggest crush on to homecoming. Suddenly, lifting weights wasn’t just a class I was stuck in — it felt like a chance to reinvent myself.

I didn’t make any dramatic changes before the dance, but the fire was lit. My numbers started going up. My body started changing. People started noticing. And for the first time ever, I felt proud of something physical I had done.

That was the moment fitness became the doorway to a completely new life.

When Fitness Became My Passport

Once I learned how to lift, everything else opened up.

Lifting turned into curiosity.

Curiosity turned into capability.

Capability turned into confidence.

From that first weights class, I branched into every movement discipline I could find:

• Strength training

• Martial arts

• Rock climbing

• Gymnastics

• Yoga

• Dance

• Surfing

• Functional fitness
  

Each new skill brought me into a new world with new people and new ideas. Every time I learned something unfamiliar, my life expanded.

Surfing is a perfect example. Growing up, surfing was something “other people” did — people who were fit, confident, and skilled. Once I built strength through training, surfing suddenly felt possible. That led to countless ocean trips with friends. Fitness didn’t just make me stronger — it gave me a life filled with adventure.

That’s what I want people to understand: When you build physical skill, your world becomes bigger.

How Spokane Shaped My Fitness Journey

My relationship with fitness grew up right alongside my relationship with Spokane.

I’ve trained in almost every type of gym this city has:

• High-school weight rooms

• Backyard setups

• Martial arts studios

• Rock-climbing gyms

• Yoga studios

• Gymnastics gyms

• Community college weight rooms

• Local strength-and-conditioning spaces

Spokane has an incredibly welcoming, diverse fitness culture. You can walk into a climbing gym, a martial arts school, a yoga studio, or a strength gym and be surrounded by people who genuinely want to learn and grow.

That accessibility is part of why Torq Personal Training exists. I wanted to create a place that combined all these influences:

• Strength training

• Functional movement

• Gymnastics-inspired training

• Skill development

• A friendly, supportive community

All under one roof.

Why Torq Personal Training Is Different

Torq Personal Training is where all the pieces of my fitness story came together.

Our approach is simple:

• Teach people proper movement

• Build real capability

• Make fitness accessible, fun, and skill-based

• Guide people from intimidated beginners to confident movers

We don’t just say “lift this.” We say, “Here’s how to move your body, here’s why it matters, and here’s what it unlocks.”

People who walk into Torq nervous or self-conscious quickly realize something important:

• They are capable

• They can learn skills

• They can get strong

• They belong here

The same way my life opened through fitness, I want to open that door for others.

The People Fitness Brought Into My Life

Some of the best people in my life came through fitness.

When I was studying exercise science at Spokane Falls Community College, I met a group of friends who were just as obsessed with training as I was. We:

• Studied together

• Worked out together

• Suffered through brutal workouts together

• Celebrated each other’s progress

Those friendships shaped my entire early adulthood. We’re still friends today — the kind of people I can work out with, surf with, or go on an adventure with anytime.

Shared suffering builds deep connection. You don’t need the same job, the same background, or the same interests — you just need the same workout.

That’s why learning skills is so powerful. If you can:

• Deadlift

• Climb

• Run

• Dance

• Roll (jiu-jitsu)

You can walk into almost any fitness community and instantly belong.

Jiu-jitsu is a perfect example. Any city, any time — I can walk into a gym, step onto the mats, and immediately be welcomed.

Fitness gives you people.

Fitness gives you connection.

Fitness gives you belonging.

The Confidence That Leaves the Gym With You

Fitness changed my body, but the real transformation was emotional.

The confidence I built in the gym followed me everywhere:

• Into relationships

• Into leadership

• Into difficult conversations

• Into stressful seasons of life

• Into moments when I felt completely alone

The gym taught me to show up for myself. To build discipline. To face heavy things and move them anyway.

When life got hard, the resilience I had built under the bar was already inside me.

That’s one of the biggest gifts training gives: The things you conquer in the gym prepare you for the things you’ll face outside of it.

Spokane: A Playground for Capable People

Once I built strength and movement skill, Spokane became my playground.

Fitness made it possible — and fun — to say yes to everything:

• Rock climbing at Wild Walls

• Hiking Beacon Hill

• Running Bloomsday

• Gymnastics open gyms

• Yoga studios

• Surf trips

• Outdoor fitness events

• Torq Treks adventures

With a foundation of strength and conditioning, nothing felt intimidating anymore. Everything felt available.

If you’re new to Spokane, here’s my biggest advice:

Walk through the first door that interests you — yoga, climbing, martial arts, strength training, running.

Just start.

That’s where the community is.

That’s where the friendships happen.

That’s where your confidence grows.

Learning the Language of the Gym

It took me about two years before I felt like I truly understood the gym — the movements, the terminology, and the culture.

Eventually, people started asking me for advice. That moment changed everything. It gave me purpose. It gave me identity. And it pushed me toward the career I have today.

For the Beginners Who Feel Nervous

If you feel intimidated, I understand.

My biggest fear when I started was that people would see me as weak — especially girls. I didn’t want anyone to know how little I could lift. I didn’t want to be judged.

But here’s the truth: most people in the gym are too focused on their own journey to judge yours. And every experienced athlete remembers what it felt like to be new.

That’s why Torq Personal Training is built the way it is:

• We guide you every step

• We match exercises to your ability

• We help you feel confident from day one

• We teach you the language of movement

• We create a safe, encouraging space

You don’t need to know anything to start. You just need to show up.

My Mission Through Torq

My mission is simple:

Fitness opens your life.

It gives you:

• Confidence

• Capability

• Community

• Adventure

• Connection

• A sense of pride in who you’re becoming

At Torq Personal Training Spokane, we help people discover all of that by teaching them how to move well, build strength, and gain the skills that make new experiences possible.

Ready to Start Your Spokane Fitness Journey

If you want to:

• Build confidence

• Learn real movement skills

• Join a welcoming community

• Get stronger

• Go on adventures

• Feel more capable in your body

Torq Personal Training is the best place to start.

Book a consultation.

Try a class.

Reach out to our team.

Your entire life can open up from one step into the gym.

Mine did.

And yours can too.

Coach Donnie

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Visit us at TorqPersonalTraining.com